OGDEN – The City of Ogden has prepared its budget plans for the coming year.

On Tuesday, the Ogden City Council unanimously approved a $268 million budget for 2025.

This included a property tax increase that exceeded the amount proposed at the beginning of the budget cycle.

“The proposed budget originally called for a 1% tax increase to provide mental health resources for public safety employees,” the city said in a press release announcing the budget’s adoption. “In addition, $1.8 million from BDO’s lease revenue was proposed to be transferred to the general fund to offset rising costs for operations, materials and supplies due to inflationary pressures.”

However, this raised some concerns.

“Council members recognized the budgetary need but expressed concerns about a policy change requiring BDO funds to be used for ongoing expenses rather than one-time expenses,” the release said. “Council and administration worked together to address these concerns in other ways. The result was the decision to maintain last year’s certified property tax rate, which will generate approximately $1 million in additional property tax revenue for the city. Maintaining the rate for 2023 resulted in a property tax increase of 5.36%, or an increase of approximately $26 in the average residential property tax bill.”

During Tuesday night’s meeting, Council Member Richard Hyer said the council had worked hard on this issue.

“Our job is to make sure our city is doing well, that we’re providing the appropriate services to residents and not wasting money,” he said. “This year in particular, we had a new mayor. When he came in May and presented his proposed budget, it was different than in the past, and that caused us as council members to really roll up our sleeves. We all did, as did the administration. We really dug deep into it to make sure that – with the information we have – we were making our compensation appropriate for employees.”

In addition to the tax increase, there will also be salary increases for some workers.

Under the fiscal year 2025 budget, employees below the market salary range will have their salaries downgraded to the minimum salary and may receive a performance increase of up to 4%.

“Employee salaries make up the lion’s share of our city expenses,” Hyer said. “If we don’t pay them enough, they go to other municipalities or find another job. It’s not worth going to work, so they quit, and we’re left without those benefits. If we pay them too much, we have to pay higher taxes. So it’s a balancing act that we all have to somehow balance.”

Council Chairman Ken Richey said the budget process was not an easy one.

“The budget process was rigorous,” he said. “It’s not a pleasant conversation, but I think we produced a good budget and we all had to pitch in to get it done.”

For more information on the adopted budget, visit https://ogdencity.com/budgetprocess.

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